I have to type up a heritage paper for history, I dont know where to begin. How do I track my ancestors?

Question

I'm African American and my grandmothers parents are from Murrisville South Carolina

Answer 1

I have access to the "Freedman's Bank Records". If you email me privately and give me the surnames in your family, I can see if anyone appears to be listed. I included an explanation of these records below.

The Freedman's Bank was created to assist newly freed slaves during and after the Civil War. The records cover the time period from about 1864 to 1871 and document the names and family relationships of those who used the bank. While the information contained in these records is very incomplete by normal genealogical standards, they are some of the very few records that document these individuals and are a vital source of information for those with African American ancestry. There are approximately 480,000 names in the file.

Answer 2

First, start with your own generation and work back with what you know to be facts : You name, date & place of birth, then your parent's names (including mother's maiden name), dates & places of birth; and just keep going back as far as you can. Birth Certificates are public information and are kept on file in the county of the person's birth. It also lists that person's parents names etc. If you go back far enough where there is no information on file with a birth certificate, you can go to the census records. A good place to go for personal assistance is a genealogy library. They have staff and generally lots of people who have been doing research like this for a while and are willing to help you. For a fee you can get copies of birth and death certificates. You can also right to the National Archives for information regarding military service and pensions. Genealogy can be a lot of fun once you learn how to do it. You might also check your local library for a standard family tree form. It will include a lot of other family information such as siblings, places and dates of their births, marriage dates & places, death dates, and some even have job information.

If you can't find this, you could make up your own family tree form and take a survey of your current living relatives that includes the above information or any other data you would like to know about. Only include information you can verify as sometimes family stories that have been handed down are not always factual. Good luck and have fun!

Dolly

Answer 3

As with a lot of the others have said, start with your parents (date of birth, city, county[if known]and state of birth) then add your grandparents, and so on. Because of your African-American heritage the farther you go back, the harder it may be to check out the information on your family. If your family has a line that were slaves, you have to remember that slaves were not supposed to be able to read & write, so a lot of information was passed on to each generation by word of mouth, another good source to check out when you get further back are churchs that were in the area of were your ancestors lived. They should have baptisim and marriage records on file. Just as some one else said it is fun once you get the hang of it. I have been able to trace back to the 1600's Germany.

Answer 4

Go to the LDS Church's family history site, or to Rootsweb - both free genealogy sites that have lots and lots of info. Just plug the name of your grandmother and/or her parents into the site, and see what you come up with. You will probably get lots of good clues to follow up on.

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

familysearch.org. My advice is to leave the search as general as possible even if you know the information. For example, if your looking for your grandma's parents, don't put her birthdate and search by that. Somebody else might have put in info on her using her marriage date. Sometimes you won't get anything, but try a few different relatives. If your searching for somebody who is deceased try the social security death index. It's free on rootsweb.com.

Answer 6

If you have any living relatives, ask them if anyone in the family is interested in your family's history or family tree.
If not, I would start with Ancestry.com and see if you have any luck tracing your family back a few more generations.

Answer 7

Begin by asking all your living relatives to tell you as much as they know about your family (starting with your parents, then your grandparents, and so on.)

Answer 8

Start with your parents and work backward. Also your surname probably goes back to the salve owners.

Answer 9

this is going to sound really bad but it is true, for a paper trail, look in the property records of the former slave owners. your family can tell you which owners.

Answer 10

Talk to your oldest relatives. Try www.ancestry.com